Overwatch 2 PvE release date window, story details, and characters

When is the Overwatch 2 PvE release date? The world of Overwatch 2 has a lot of endearing aspects to it. Even with a rising crisis between humans and omnics, there is a bright look to the future. The lore and colorful characters have supplanted themselves as some gamers’ favorite stories in any video game, even without Overwatch 2 having a dedicated story mode yet. Luckily, we know one is on the way. Here is everything we know about the incoming story PvE mode in Overwatch 2.

Overwatch 2 PvE mode release date

At the time of writing, the Overwatch 2 PvE release date is expected this year, but we don’t have the exact details yet. Some people have guessed that since Overwatch 2 has moved to a regular battle pass schedule, the story mode may come out in waves rather than all at once. That is mere speculation, though, and there is no evidence to back it up, but we’ll be sure to update this as soon as we learn more.

Overwatch 2 PvE story details

In the first Overwatch, the story happened outside of the game in comics, animated shorts, and short stories. In Overwatch 2’s story, we are picking up with everyone after Winston has recalled and started to build a new Overwatch team, including Tracer, Mei, Genji, Mercy, Reinhardt, Brigitte, and Echo. Additional heroes in the cast will be met with and added to the team, like Lucio, Torbjorn, Sojourn, and Zenyatta.

As the team is built up, they will go around the world whenever the terrorist groups Talon and Null Sector are attacking various cities like Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, and other locations you know from the game’s PvP. While there will be some overlap, the maps you see in Overwatch 2’s story will be made specifically for the mission at hand. In the game’s other PvE mode, Hero Missions, those maps appear to be directly pulled from the PvP side.

With the focus being on the new up-and-coming Overwatch team, we do not believe you can play as Talon or Null Sector, but you should regularly see heroes like Ramattra, Doomfist, Widowmaker, and Reaper as main antagonists throughout the story.

Related: When does Overwatch 2 Season 4 begin? Predicted start date

Overwatch 2 PvE character list

As of this writing, we have not gotten a full breakdown of all heroes in the Overwatch 2 story mode. While it would be great to have every character on the roster included, that is a very tough ask, and kind of impossible to implement with the dozens already here and more on the way. You have your mainstays like Tracer, Winston, and others that are integral to the story moving forward, but plenty of characters like Wrecking Ball, Junkrat, Roadhog, Symmetra, and Zarya are all characters that can fit into the story, but they kind of all have their own storylines going on. How new incoming heroes like Lifeweaver fit in is a question all on its own.

Of course, that can all change when we get to see more of the story, but we would be surprised if every hero is playable in the story mode when it releases.